Microsoft announces upcoming improvements to SharePoint site authoring

Most SharePoint sites are created by non-web developers, and so Microsoft is working to make the process as simple as possible.

The company has announced a series of enhancements coming in the coming months, designed to streamline the SharePoint site creation process.

These enhancements are intended to make it easier for users to understand where they are by adding labels, reducing clutter by consolidating actions into a web part toolbar, and putting authors into mode focus by default to eliminate visual distraction.

Changes to Focus Mode:

• When entering edit mode, the author of the SharePoint site and news enters focus mode, which removes the page’s title and navigation so the author can focus on editing the page. Users can still manually exit focus mode if desired.

Changes to section content and labels:

• While editing, authors will notice new labels marking sections and web parts so they understand what’s being used on the page more clearly.

Changes to the web part toolbar:

• Authors will notice that the web part toolbars move from a vertical to a horizontal position, and actions are merged into that single web part toolbar.

Improvements will be rolled out to Targeted Releases (several users and entire organizations) in early December and are expected to be completed by early January 2022, while Standards users will see changes from mid-January 2022 to early February 2022.